Mexican authorities have found 49 mutilated bodies stuffed in bags near the northern city of Monterrey in what officials believe is the latest act of violence in the country's brutal drug war.

Police say they found the bodies in the early hours Sunday on a stretch of highway leading just south of the U.S. border.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the violence, but it echoes several other recent cases in which drug gangs have left bodies in public places to serve as warnings to their rivals. Days earlier, authorities discovered 18 dismembered bodies in western Mexico. Separately in the north, officials found 23 bodies dumped or hanging in the city of Nuevo Laredo.

In 2006, President Felipe Calderon ordered the Mexican army to rein in the country's violent drug cartels. Since then, officials estimate that more than 50,000 have been killed in drug gang violence and clashes with the security forces.